Kentucky History Drive

History is all around us.

Pioneers, Native nations, long hunters, soldiers and distillers. Explore the stories that made Kentucky, on a living map you can travel through time.

Timeline story

Powell County · Prehistoric · 1926

Natural Bridge sandstone arch

In Powell and Wolfe counties, a 78-foot-long, 65-foot-high arch of Corbin Sandstone (Breathitt Formation, Middle Pennsylvanian) spans a gorge on the Middle Fork of the Red River.

Quartz-rich river sands capped softer Mississippian limestones; Alleghenian uplift and millions of years of freeze–thaw and stream cutting carved the arch. Long a landmark for Indigenous hunters and settlers, the site became a railroad excursion stop in the 1890s and one of Kentucky's original state parks in 1926, beside Red River Gorge and the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Learn more

Cite this story

Published . Last revised .

Chicago

Snowden, Shannon. "Natural Bridge sandstone arch." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 20, 2026. Last revised October 26, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/natural-bridge-sandstone-arch/.

MLA

Snowden, Shannon. "Natural Bridge sandstone arch." Kentucky History Drive, published 20 Sept. 2026, last revised 26 Oct. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/natural-bridge-sandstone-arch/.

Report a correction

Open this story on the timeline Open on the map